Prosper Australia

15 May 2013 MELBOURNE:- Yesterday’s federal budget highlights again Australia’s unbalanced reliance on wage and salary taxation for government revenues, says Prosper Australia. “Taxation discourages. That is why we tax gambling, alcohol and tobacco. Unfortunately, it has the same effect on work. We tax it so heavily it must also be a very bad economic [...]

  Land prices are falling across Australia.  Yet the politico-housing complex strains at every sinew to hide this from first home buyers and jolly them into making a life-long commitment at the very worst time in eighty years. Problem is, the buyers know.  They are very, very aware land prices are ridiculous and we are [...]

by Bryan Kavanagh AAPI Today’s Victorian API news demonstrates the Australian Property Institute is at risk of losing its way: “Property taxes shoulder Vic budget The Victorian government is becoming addicted to property taxes, which will raise over $6 billion in forward estimates for the 2013-14 Victorian State Budget.” [My emphasis] The phrase  “becoming addicted to property [...]

  28 April 2013 MELBOURNE: – Victoria’s new Treasurer Michael O’Brien taunts first home buyers with a cruel hoax today, announcing grants for new build and targeted stamp duty concessions. He confirmed their role as a patsy for every property-based parasite in Australia. “First home buyers are being bribed with their own money,” David Collyer [...]

  Last week I offered a solution to the blight caused by vacant or disused sites in central Melbourne. Everyone is diminished by landowners leaving valuable land unused while they agitate for rezoning profits. The Age’s Bruce Guthrie hopped into the discussion for a hand-wringing but offered no solution.  The problem would be reduced by [...]

As published in the Economic Society of Victoria’s Ceteris Paribus. “You have to ask, if those being duped are too naive to complain, and those profiteering are too valuable to upset, is housing affordability a problem for our politicians, or a gift?” asks Tohm Whitty (Fairfax). First home owners are currently expected to borrow $226,000 [...]

  The Melbourne City Council has been urged to apply differential rates “to sites defined as vacant or derelict” by its Future of Melbourne committee. They name to shame the Savoy Tavern on Spencer Street, the Argus building on Latrobe Street and bare land at 567 Collins Street as examples of developer-owned blight. Councillors loathe [...]

We are proud to announce our new office is up and running. We have moved to 2/22 Punch Lane, Melbourne, located at the Spring St end of Little Bourke St. The Shark Fin Inn is on the corner of Punch Lane and Little Bourke St. Parliament Station is nearest for train. Our new phone number [...]

  Victoria’s new Treasurer Michael O’Brien has called for a discussion on ending Stamp Duty on property conveyances.  Prosper welcomes this opportunity to consider the quality of Victoria’s tax bases and the costs they impose on citizens. Stamp Duty is a very bad tax and highly inefficient.  It discourages buying and selling property.  It excludes [...]

Governments in China, Hong Kong and Singapore are acting to curb property speculation. Zero Hedge comments: The reason for this “hot money” phenomenon is the easy money policy adopted by all the world’s central banks (except for the PBOC of course, which is forced to stick with reverse repo-based ultra short-term money injections), coupled with [...]